A scientist is testing certain sampling strategies to see which one is best. She's gathered data from an entire population and calculates a population mean (mu) = 14 and a population standard deviation (sigma) = 5. She draws five different samples from this population using five different strategies and gets the following sample means and standard deviations:
Sample 1 (x - bar) = 16.9, s = 6
Sample 2 (x - bar) = 14.5, s = 4.7
Sample 3 (x - bar) = 10.5, s = 3.3
Sample 4 (x - bar) = 17, s = 4.9
Sample 5 (x - bar) = 14.1, s = 8.4

Question

A scientist is testing certain sampling strategies to see which one is best. She's gathered data from an entire population and calculates a population mean (mu) = 14 and a population standard deviation (sigma) = 5. She draws five different samples from this population using five different strategies and gets the following sample means and standard deviations:
Sample 1 (x - bar) = 16.9, s = 6
Sample 2 (x - bar) = 14.5, s = 4.7
Sample 3 (x - bar) = 10.5, s = 3.3
Sample 4 (x - bar) = 17, s = 4.9
Sample 5 (x - bar) = 14.1, s = 8.4

minimato · Answer

Which sampling strategy does she conclude provides the best sample?

minimato · Answer

If you give the answer, can you please explain it to me, as well?

minimato · Answer

Never mind, I got the answer. It's Sample 2, because the mean and standard deviation of the sample for Sample 2 was closest to the mean and standard deviation of the population